The drama is over for Angoon "Mama Toy" Coppedge.
Coppedge and her partners Monday signed a new five-year lease with a five-year option for the newly re-branded Mama Toy’s Chao Phya Thai restaurant.
"The new company has a new lease with the landlord," said restaurant industry veteran and partner Guy C. Smith.
"Mama’s still going to be here, but she won’t have to work as many hours."
The Kaneohe restaurant has occupied the same space at Windward City Shopping Center since before Coppedge bought it from the previous owner in 1996.
Coppedge’s daughter Atchara "Timmie" Somanee had persuaded her mother to buy the restaurant because seeing people enjoy her cooking made her happy.
While mother ran the kitchen, daughter managed business affairs.
Somanee was later diagnosed with lupus and died in 2012. The restaurant fell behind on its rent, and Chao Phya Thai was faced with possible eviction.
Still grieving over the loss of her daughter, Chao Phya Thai customers have become Coppedge’s family.
In August, Coppedge, 77, told TheBuzz, "Customers love me. … They say, ‘Mama, don’t quit, I can put you on a wheelchair, I’ll push you,’" she said. "I want to be with them."
Mina Brinkopf is longtime customer who learned of Coppedge’s financial straits and stepped in to help the woman she and all the other regulars call "Mama Toy."
"Guy has been such an incredible driver behind all of this, and his expertise has been lending huge success to what we want to do for Mama, the restaurant and the community," Brinkopf said. She also credited supportive shopping center management.
Smith was brought in to help with operations and has done everything from power-washing an exterior awning to interior renovation work, in addition to menu planning.
The interior freshening-up will include new carpeting, spruced-up bathrooms and upgrades in the kitchen, to name a few projects.
"We’ll be painting tonight," Smith said Tuesday.
However, the two-wall mural of the Koolau mountain range, which was a customer’s gift to Coppedge years ago, will remain untouched, he said.
From the kitchen, customers also can expect newness.
"We’re going to be doing specials, and Mina and I have ideas we’re going to try and incorporate," Smith said.
Ideas include "very creative and uniquely presented Thai tapas," along with all the favorites that everybody enjoys at Mama Toy’s.
Throwback November
Hawaiian Airlines has rolled out an infographic on its social media channels (#HA1929) depicting some of its milestones in preparation for the airline’s 85th anniversary in November.
Its first such infographic to be shared online shows that back in 1929, oil cost $1.27 a barrel, among other fun facts.
In 1929 the airline flew three round-trip neighbor island flights a week, versus the 560 now flown. A flight to Hilo from Honolulu took one hour and 40 minutes, versus the 36 minutes it now takes with considerably more modern aircraft.
The average cost of a Honolulu-to-Hilo flight in 1929 was $15, which the airline says is equivalent to $208.99 in 2014 dollars, whereas that flight now costs $70.
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
